iris
\i.ʁis\
The verdict
“iris” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #9,504 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,504
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Partie colorée de l’œil qui environne la prunelle et qui présente quelquefois des nuances circulaires et concentriques.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | iris |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \i.ʁis\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,504 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “iris” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for iris is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \i.ʁis\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,504 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for iris, with forms such as "iirs", "iriss", and "irris". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "IRL", "its", "IRM", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is iris, spelled I-R-I-S.
Definition
- 1Partie colorée de l’œil qui environne la prunelle et qui présente quelquefois des nuances circulaires et concentriques.
- 2Système mécanique constitué de plaques assemblées en cercle, permettant par un mécanisme d’obturer l’ouverture centrale progressivement en lui conservant la forme d’un cercle.
- 3Genre de plantes monocotylédones à fleur de couleur vive et de bonne taille.
- 4La racine de cet iris dans ses emplois en parfumerie.
- 5Arc-en-ciel, en référence à Iris dans la mythologie grecque à laquelle ce phénomène est associé.
- 6Pierre d’iris, iris : Quartz irisé.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iirs,iriss,irris,irsi,riis
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of iris - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "iris"?
What does "iris" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “iris”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is I-R-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \i.ʁis\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “IRL” - see the side-by-side comparison. iris vs IRL
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.